1. Technical Field
The invention relates to the field of inkjet printing. More specifically, the invention relates to liquid ink delivery for large throughput printing applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Inkjet printing involves depositing droplets of liquid ink onto a printing medium from one or more printer heads. The printer heads are coupled with a container containing ink. Ink is ejected from one or more nozzles of the print heads when a piezoelectric crystal in the print head is actuated. The piezoelectric crystal generates a pulse in the ink so that the ink expels through the nozzle as a droplet. To create the image, a carriage which holds one or more print heads scans or traverses across the printing medium, while the print heads deposit ink as the printing medium moves.
Small desktop inkjet printers are common consumer electronic products. Indeed, many consumer and business printing needs may be met by small desktop inkjet printing systems because of the relatively small amount of ink needed for common print jobs. However, some printing applications require much larger amounts of ink. For instance, large format printing is performed to create signs, banners, museum displays, sails, bus boards and the like. These types of applications require large throughput printers and require a much larger quantity of ink.
Ink cartridges are typically sold with replaceable ink reservoirs. Ink reservoirs are typically individually packaged and sold over the counter. However, common inkjet reservoirs contain far less ink than is required for large format printing. Currently, replacement reservoirs are not available in volumes greater than approximately five liters. Furthermore, the overhead cost associated with individually manufacturing, packaging and shipping small, individual replacement reservoirs is burdensome given that they must be replaced frequently to achieve large format printing.
Additionally, the ink used for inkjet printing is very expensive. This encourages designing printing systems that waste little ink. Some common containers for large format printing are designed to collapse in order to force the ink out of the cartridges and waste as little ink as possible. However, collapsible containers must be packaged in a protective shell or secondary container to protect the integrity of the container during shipping and handling. The secondary container adds to the overall cost of replacement ink.